Euro NCAP lauds U.S. car safety in 2011 best-of report

The Ford Focus

The Europeans are different than me and you, especially when it comes to cars. Our friends in Paris, London, Belgium, Albania and beyond take great pride in negotiating baby-carriage-sized machines over skinny streets the average American would have to turn sideways to negotiate, for one thing. They in turn see us a bunch of McGuzzler-obsessed cowboys. That’s for starters.

It therefore came as a shock when Euro NCAP, who organize crash-tests and provide European consumers with assessment of the safety performance of some of the most popular cars sold in Europe, picked a lot of Yank cars to top their list.

Ford’s Focus was named the safest family car in the report, achieving 92 percent for adult occupant protection and 82 percent for child occupants, and it’s also the first big-selling car to receive four Euro NCAP 'Advanced' rewards for use of technology. Chevrolet’s Aveo took the #1 spot in the subcompact category. Other American rides like Chevy’s Volt and Ford’s Ranger also made the list.

Why are American cars doing so well safety-wise, especially in a European study? Aren’t we the ones who designed cars with metal dashboards, steering wheels with sharp cones, doors that come off in crashes, and “safety” glass that shreds human skin? Yes, we are. But our cars also provide the very latest in safety features, like airbags, Electronic Stability Control systems, “crumple zones” and more. That most American cars I’ve tested in recent years (save for Cadillac) have been cheaped-down, plastic, dull-looking, overpriced yawns is beside the point. You crash these days, you have a better chance of surviving, even in an American car.

Take the Chevy Aveo, for instance.

“The passenger compartment remained stable in the frontal impact,” says the Euro NCAP award. “Dummy readings indicated good protection for the knees and femurs of both the driver and front passenger dummies and Chevrolet showed that a similar level of protection would be offered to occupants of different sizes and to those sat in different seating positions. The Aveo scored maximum points in the side barrier test, all body regions being well protected. Even in the more severe pole test, the chest was adequately protected. The seat and head restraint provided good protection against whiplash injuries in the event of a rear-end collision.”

The Chevy Aveo in America is now the Sonic for 2012, by the way, and it starts at around $14,000. That’s “cheap” in today’s market. Cheap or not, ugly or not, you’re safer now in an American car than you’ve ever been since the first guy was talking about Warren Harding’s chances for re-election, didn’t look at the road, and hit the Model T in front of him.